THEY said, if you remember, that David Beckham had joined football's equivalent of the Harlem Globetrotters when he signed for Real Madrid.

They said Madrid were destined to be a glorified exhibition team, hobbled by their own vanities, for the foreseeable future.

On Sunday, Beckham and his Globetrotters completed one of the most stirring and gutsy comebacks in the history of the Spanish league and beat the great Barcelona side of Ronaldinho, Messi and Eto'o to the title.

Now Beckham's got three weeks of rest. Then, it's on to his next task. And his next task makes helping to transform a moribund Madrid side into champions look like a walk in the park.

The last few months may have turned his career into a Roy of the Rovers cover story again but what's next will take a long time and a lot of effort.

Like it says on those signs you see in shops sometimes, the impossible he can do, miracles take a little longer.

Because Beckham's next task is nothing less than a second English-led colonisation of America.

His next task, when he joins the Los Angeles Galaxy next month, is to inspire the growth of football in the United States to a point where it is approaching the mainstream. Major League Soccer here is established and healthy now.

The teams routinely attract crowds of 25,000 spectators, often more. But even its most enthusiastic and articulate backers, men like Galaxy president Alexi Lalas, acknowledge that the league has started to stagnate.

It needs an injection of fantasy and glamour to go with all the hardworking, hard-running virtues that define it at the moment.

It needs Beckham. Look, I went to see the Galaxy play Real Salt Lake on Sunday and there is no point in pretending it was an impressive footballing spectacle. It wasn't.

Some of the defending was laughable, a couple of the Salt Lake players would have struggled to make it into the Accrington Stanley side while the atmosphere was flat. But in a way, that's the whole point about Beckham's move to America. The point is not the state of the league now but the state of it when he completes his contract here in five years' time.

The mere anticipation of his move is already having startling effects on football's profile here.

On Monday morning, USA Today, the closest thing America has to a national newspaper, devoted the entire Page 3 of its sports section to Beckham's last game for Madrid.

That is an unprecedented level of coverage for soccer here and there are other signs, too.

I sat in the lobby bar at Caesar's Palace last night, watching sports channel ESPN on the overhead screens. One of the montages they show again and again features Tiger Woods making a putt, Barry Bonds swinging a baseball bat, Kobe Bryant swishing a basketball through a net, Peyton Manning throwing a touchdown pass... and Beckham taking a free-kick.

The Beckham Effect is taking hold. It's starting to push soccer into the national consciousness here and give it a presence it did not have before.

The MLS needs to make changes fast to capitalise on his arrival. Most of all, they need to adjust the salary cap to allow clubs to sign better players.

The signs are, despite criticism that Beckham has moved to the States too early, that he has got his timing just right.

The MLS needs him now and it needs him when he is still at the very top of the European game. The demographic make-up of American society, with its growing Latino influence, makes it obvious soccer here has huge potential. It just needs to be tapped.

If it is, the sky's the limit for the game here. In 10 or 15 years, it could be the place all the top stars want to play.

With Beckham as a figurehead, the MLS has a credibility it has lacked until now. With him, it is in a position to make huge strides forward.

There are plenty who say Americans will never conquer their apathy for soccer.

Just like there were plenty who said Beckham would never win a league title with Real Madrid or win a recall to the England team.

He has a habit of proving people wrong.

THEY call the baseball clashes between the Los Angeles Angels and the Los Angeles Dodgers the Freeway Series. I went to the first game of the three at Dodger Stadium on Friday. The stadium, just off Sunset Boulevard, was fantastic.

It's still an ambition to see cricket at Eden Gardens, Calcutta, but the spectacle of Dodger Stadium at night, with the lights of LA twinkling behind it, will take a bit of beating.